Roman Polanski To Face Civil Trial For Alleged 1973 Rape Of A Minor
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A civil lawsuit accusing director Roman Polanski of the 1973 rape of a minor will go to trial next year in Los Angeles.
The unnamed plaintiff announced her suit and the Aug. 4, 2025, trial date during a news conference with attorney Gloria Allred on Tuesday, when they detailed her accusation that Polanski supplied her with alcohol and raped her in his Los Angeles home when she was 16.
The plaintiff, referred to as Jane Doe in the lawsuit, initially made her accusation in 2017 under the pseudonym Robin M. after a woman who’d accused Polanski of raping her in 1977, at age 13, asked a judge to dismiss that criminal case against him. The case was not dismissed.
Allred, reading from the lawsuit, said, “Plaintiff remembers waking up in Defendant’s bed with him lying in the bed next to her.”
“He told her that he wanted to have sex with her. Plaintiff, though groggy, told Defendant ‘No.’ She told him, ‘Please don’t do this.’”
The plaintiff, according to court documents, claims Polanski ignored her pleas, assaulted her and then drove her home.
During the news conference, Allred said she doubted that Polanski would appear at the trial. The “Rosemary’s Baby” director, now 90, fled the United States in 1978 before criminal proceedings began in the alleged rape of Samantha Gailey (now Geimer).
“He is not coming back,” Allred told the media Tuesday. “But this is a civil lawsuit. He does not have to appear.”
In a statement to Variety, Polanski’s attorney said the director “strenuously denies the allegations in the lawsuit and believes that the proper place to try this case is in the courts.”
She was able to file suit against him as “Jane Doe” last June under a California law that extended the statue of limitations for child sexual abuse cases.
The trial in Los Angeles County Superior Court is expected to last 10 days, according to the judge.
Need help? Visit RAINN’s National Sexual Assault Online Hotline or the National Sexual Violence Resource Center’s website.
